On April 28, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks captured a subadult male grizzly near McGregor Lake in a culvert trap after it had been spotted frequenting residential areas and eating birdseed and garbage around McGregor Lake and Little Bitterroot Lake near Marion.

The bear was three years old and weighed 246 pounds. After it was captured, it was fitted with a GPS radio collar and relocated to the Big Creek drainage on the west side of Lake Koocanusa in the Kootenai National Forest.

This capture is of particular interest to FWP because it occurred outside of the six established grizzly recovery areas, meaning grizzlies have expanded their territory.

"We've never had grizzlies in that area before," Dillon Tabish, FWP regional information and education program manager, said. "This is a whole new thing."

The six grizzly recovery areas are the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, the Selkirk Ecosystem, the Selway-Bitterroot Ecosystem and the North Cascades Ecosystem.

The McGregor lake grizzly capture site was located between the North Continental Divide and Cabinet-Yaak ecosystems. The release area is remote habitat within the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, encompassing the Yaak Valley and the Cabinet and Purcell mountain ranges in northwest Montana and northeast Idaho.

"Homeowners were surprised that a grizzly had shown up in an area they've never been before," Tabish said. "We're telling people that even if you don't think there are bears in the area, assume there could be and secure attractants. Northwest Montana is bear country."